Urgent message from LoC Professional Guild

We are sending you this message because the Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910, needs your help.

For over thirty years our union has worked with management to forge a constructive relationship at the Library of Congress. Together we have built a modern and progressive workplace committed to the highest principles of librarianship. Everybody has gained, including the public we serve.

Today, the Library of Congress has chosen to betray that relationship. Through its Office of Workforce Management, the Library has struck at the very heart of the Guild by seeking to put union representatives on enforced leave or Leave Without Pay until we provide confidential information about our Guild representational activities.

The Library wants us to change the way we submit our bi-weekly reports to management by forcing us to describe specifics of conversations held with employees in the Guild office. If we were to submit to this demand, we would undermine the confidentiality of employees and impair our ability to represent our colleagues at the Library of Congress.

Guild officers and stewards always account for our use of official time for representational activity but we object to demands that go beyond the reporting practices of our federal union colleagues in the Executive Branch. Under the guise of “accountability” the Office of Workforce Management is attempting to chill communications with employees, curtail official time for Guild representatives, and restrict the Guild’s ability to develop and implement progressive policies and practices at the Library of Congress. Furthermore, efforts by management to coerce union officials by docking their pay is considered by many to be union-busting.

These actions should have no place at the Library of Congress, or in any workplace in America. Please visit our website at http://www.guild2910.org and read about our efforts to preserve representational rights at the Library of Congress.

We urge you to express your concern by signing the statement below:

Dear Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress:

As the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and as the research arm of the U.S. Congress, the Library of Congress should embody the values of pluralism and democracy. Employees who participate in labor organizations, or who — as officers or stewards — assist their colleagues in the workplace, should have the right to do so without fear
of penalty or reprisal.

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Please cut and paste this statement and send it to our email address. You may also fax it us or send us a letter.

And if you visit our website we invite you to read 2 essays by our members:

“More on What is Going on at the Library of Congress,” by Thomas Mann, January 1, 2007,” and

“Eliminating Series Authority Records and Series Title Control: Improving Efficiency or Creating Waste? Or, 12 Reasons Why the Library of Congress Should Reconsider Its SARs Decision,” by Gary M. Johnson, January 11, 2007.”

On behalf of our executive board and stewards, we thank you for your support,

Saul Schniderman, Cataloger
Guild President

Melinda Friend, Archivist
Guild Chief Steward

The Library of Congress Professional Guild
AFSCME Local 2910
Mail stop 9994
Room No. LM G-41
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540
www.guild2910.org
guild@loc.gov
(202) 707-6493/1304
Fax: (202) 707-1873
“Opinions expressed are those of the authors, and are not official statements by the Library of Congress.”